may discourse upon, would enter into the very spirit and soul of fine writing, and show us the several sources of that pleasure which rises in the mind upon the perusal of a noble work. Thus, although in poetry it be absolutely necessary that the unities of time, place, and action, with other points of the same nature, should be thoroughly explained and understood, there is still something more essential to the art, something that elevates and astonishes the fancy, and gives a greatness of mind to the reader, which few of the critics, besides Longinus, have considered.

Our general taste, in England, is for epigram, turns of wit, and forced conceits, which have no manner of influence, either for the bettering or enlarging the mind of him who reads them, and have been carefully avoided by the greatest writers, both among the ancients and moderns. I have endeavored, in several of my speculations, to banish this Gothic taste which has taken possession among us. I entertained the town for a week together with an essay upon wit, in which I endeavored to detect several of those false kinds which have been admired in the different ages of the world, and, at the same time, to show wherein the nature of true wit consists. I afterwards gave an instance of the great force which lies. in a natural simplicity of thought to affect the mind of the reader, from such vulgar pieces as have little else besides this single qualification to recommend them. I have likewise examined the works of the greatest poet which our nation, or perhaps any other,

has produced, and particularized most of those rational and manly beauties which give a value to that divine work. I shall, next Saturday, enter upon an essay on "The Pleasures of the Imagination," which, though it shall consider that subject at large, will, perhaps, suggest to the reader what it is that gives a beauty to many passages of the finest writers, both in prose and verse. As an undertaking of this nature is entirely new, I question not but it will be received with candor.

THE GOLDEN SCALES.

Omnia quæ sensu volvuntur vota diurno,
Pectore sopito reddit amica quies.
Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit,
Mens tamen ad silvas et sua lustra redit.
Judicibus lites, auriga somnia currus,

Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
Me quoque Musarum studium sub nocte silenti
Artibus assuetis sollicitare solet.

CLAUD. PRÆF. IN VI CONS. HONOR.

In sleep, when fancy is let loose to play,
Our dreams repeat the wishes of the day.
Though further toil his tired limbs refuse,
The dreaming hunter still the chase pursues.
The judge a-bed dispenses still the laws,
And sleeps again o'er the unfinished cause.
The dozing racer hears his chariot roll,
Smacks the vain whip, and shuns the fancied goal.
Me too, the Muses, in the silent night,

With wonted chimes of jingling verse delight.

I WAS lately entertaining myself with comparing Homer's balance, in which Jupiter is represented as weighing the fates of Hector and Achilles, with a passage of Virgil, wherein that deity is introduced as weighing the fates of Turnus and Æneas. I then considered how the same way of thinking prevailed in the eastern parts of the world, as in those noble passages of Scripture, wherein we are told, that the great king of Babylon, the day before his death, had

been "weighed in the balance, and been found wanting." In other places of the holy writings, the Almighty is described as weighing the mountains in scales, making the weight for the winds, knowing the balancings of the clouds; and in others, as weighing the actions of men, and laying their calamities together in a balance. Milton, as I have observed in a former paper, had an eye to several of these foregoing instances in that beautiful description wherein he represents the archangel and the evil spirit as addressing themselves for the combat, but parted by the balance which appeared in the heavens, and weighed the consequences of such a battle.

Th' Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,

Hung forth in heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign;

Wherein all things created first he weighed,
The pendulous round earth, with balanced air,
In counterpoise, now ponders all events,
Battles and realms; in these he put two weights,
The sequel each of parting and of fight.

The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam;

Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the fiend:

"Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine:

Neither our own, but given. What folly, then,

To boast what arms can do, since thine no more

Than Heaven permits; nor mine, though doubled more
To trample thee as mire! For proof look up,

And read thy lot in yon celestial sign,

Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak,
If thou resist." The fiend looked up, and knew
His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled
Murm'ring, and with him fled the shades of night.

PAR. LOST, IV. 996.

These several amusing thoughts, having taken possession of my mind some time before I went to sleep, and mingling themselves with my ordinary ideas, raised in my imagination a very odd kind of vision. I was, methought, replaced in my study, and seated in my elbow-chair, where I had indulged the foregoing speculations with my lamp burning by me as usual. Whilst I was here meditating on several subjects of morality, and considering the nature of many virtues and vices, as materials for those discourses with which I daily entertain the public, I saw, methought, a pair of golden scales hanging by a chain of the same metal, over the table that stood before me; when, on a sudden, there were great heaps of weights thrown down on each side of them. I found, upon examining these weights, they showed the value of everything that is in esteem among men. I made an essay of them, by putting the weight of wisdom in one scale, and that of riches in another; upon which, the latter, to show its comparative lightness, immediately flew up and kicked the beam.

But, before I proceed, I must inform my reader, that these weights did not exert their natural gravity till they were laid in the golden balance, insomuch that I could not guess which was light or heavy whilst I held them in my hand. This I found by several instances; for upon my laying a weight in one of the scales, which was inscribed by the word eternity," though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, poverty, interest, success, with many other weights, which in my hand seemed very